Category: “Enquiry”

Susan Jones Zoom

Doc­tor­al research 2015 – 19 that gath­ered qual­i­ta­tive evi­dence from artists in North West Eng­land to define con­ducive con­di­tions for pur­su­ing art prac­tices and liveli­hoods over time. Includes cri­tique of arts poli­cies in Eng­land 1985 – 2015 intend­ed to be sup­port­ive of artists and new insights into bar­ri­ers to sus­tain­ing artists’ liveli­hoods in future.

Read “Artists' livelihoods: the artists in arts policy conundrum” in full

Ever since the ear­ly days of New Labour in 1997, it’s been gov­ern­ment and arts pol­i­cy to inte­grate and progress devel­op­ment of the visu­al arts through the cre­ative indus­try umbrel­la and to embrace its eco­nom­ic imper­a­tives. As this sit­u­a­tion is like­ly to con­tin­ue for the fore­see­able future, through my new research I’m address­ing some key ques­tions. Do these indus­tries pro­vide a con­ducive envi­ron­ment in which visu­al artists can make a liv­ing and devel­op their careers? Are the con­di­tions and employ­ment prac­tices more favourable to ways of work­ing by some artists while oth­ers lose out?

Read “Are the creative industries good for artists?” in full

1980 — artists’ data

This audio of a pre­sen­ta­tion by Susan Jones at Work and Art, CRATE, UCA Can­ter­bury, March 2015, con­sid­ers the cli­mate for visu­al artists’ prac­tice and their abil­i­ty to make a liv­ing. Ref­er­enc­ing evi­dence and data from arts and cul­tur­al sources over the last thir­ty years and con­sid­er­ing insight from future fore­cast­ing, it iden­ti­fies the pre­vail­ing issues sur­round­ing sup­port to artists and their liveli­hoods with­in the pub­lic sec­tor. It con­cludes by artic­u­lat­ing some of the inher­ent issues and chal­lenges with­in the cur­rent and future ecol­o­gy for artists and the con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts to be addressed by pub­lic fun­ders and the sec­tor alike. 

Read “Ways and means: livelihood strategies 1984 to 2014” in full

Annabel Dover: Too Many Artists Event

This paper used com­par­a­tive data as a back­drop to a com­men­tary designed to illu­mi­nate a dis­cus­sion on whether there are ​‘Too many artists?’, rais­ing a range of issues, ques­tions and (mis)perceptions — in part about the role of artists in life in gen­er­al and impact of state inter­ven­tion and arts pol­i­cy-mak­ing in particular.

Read “​Are there too many artists?” in full

Even in coun­tries where there are well-devel­oped fee and pay sys­tems, there is evi­dence to demon­strate that artists’ wages remain unac­cept­ably low. This is a base­line prob­lem that few in the infra­struc­tures for the arts seem will­ing to tack­le and resolve.

Read “Artists’ low income and status are international issues” in full